Volume 23 Issue 6 - March 2018
In this issue: Canadian Stage, Tapestry Opera and Vancouver Opera collaborate to take Gogol’s short story The Overcoat to the operatic stage; Montreal-based Sam Shalabi brings his ensemble Land of Kush, and his newest composition, to Toronto; Five Canadian composers, each with a different CBC connection, are nominated for JUNOs; and The WholeNote team presents its annual Summer Music Education Directory, a directory of summer music camps, programs and courses across the province and beyond.
In this issue: Canadian Stage, Tapestry Opera and Vancouver Opera collaborate to take Gogol’s short story The Overcoat to the operatic stage; Montreal-based Sam Shalabi brings his ensemble Land of Kush, and his newest composition, to Toronto; Five Canadian composers, each with a different CBC connection, are nominated for JUNOs; and The WholeNote team presents its annual Summer Music Education Directory, a directory of summer music camps, programs and courses across the province and beyond.
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The Choir of Trinity-St. Paul’s<br />
presents<br />
with<br />
Chamber Choir of VIVA! Youth Singers<br />
Main Chorus of VIVA! Youth Singers<br />
Raise Her Voice Chamber - Oakville Choir for Children and Youth<br />
Beat by Beat | Jazz Notes<br />
To Whomever It<br />
May Offend<br />
An Open Letter<br />
STEVE WALLACE<br />
Featured Works include:<br />
Cantos Sagrados, James MacMillan · Take the Indian, Andrew Balfour<br />
Stabat Mater (excerpts), Giovanni Pergolesi<br />
Good Friday, <strong>March</strong> 30 3pm (free admission)<br />
Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church · 427 Bloor St. West, Toronto<br />
LONG & McQUADE<br />
FREE CLINICS<br />
DURING MARCH<br />
A series of free career-enhancing clinics specifically<br />
tailored to the needs of musicians, songwriters, producers<br />
and home studio enthusiasts.<br />
At all Long & McQuade locations, including:<br />
925 Bloor St. W (416) 588-7886<br />
toronto@long-mcquade.com<br />
This column will offer more questions than answers, more<br />
speculations than solutions, and may offend some. This is not<br />
intended and I will try to deal with any potential fallout later on,<br />
but first, the idea for this column, which was suggested by a musical<br />
evening several months ago.<br />
This past November 6, I attended the gala concert by John<br />
MacLeod’s big band, the Rex Hotel Orchestra, held in the dining room<br />
of the Old Mill. The event doubled as a launch of the band’s new CD,<br />
The Toronto Sound, and was an unqualified success in both musical<br />
and box-office terms.<br />
The 19-member band played all the selections from the new<br />
disc over two generous sets, most of them arranged and composed<br />
by MacLeod himself, with single charts provided by Rick Wilkins<br />
(Canada’s greatest living arranger, also present this night and a major<br />
inspiration to MacLeod), and band members Terry Promane and Andy<br />
Ballantyne. Like MacLeod himself, the very absorbing music reflected<br />
both traditional and modern elements, sometimes within the same<br />
piece, and there was tremendous solo work all around – along with<br />
their stellar ensemble playing, just about everyone in the band is an<br />
accomplished jazz soloist.<br />
It was a special evening, but perhaps more so for me than most.<br />
John MacLeod and I met in high school some 45 years ago where we<br />
began playing jazz together; indeed, you could say John was responsible<br />
for me taking up the bass (I was an aspiring guitarist at the time<br />
when he inducted me into the Dixieland band he began leading after<br />
school hours). We have been musical friends ever since and have<br />
played together countless times in all kinds of bands, including the<br />
Boss Brass for many years. Going so far back with him and sitting<br />
just a few feet away, listening to the rousing sound of his compositions<br />
emanating from this band he created, I was overwhelmed: I felt<br />
enormously proud of him, and for him. The band has been around<br />
for years now, but this felt like a step forward, a culmination of much<br />
blood, sweat and tears, and probably some laughs too. Oh, and by the<br />
way, the beautifully recorded CD sounds every bit as good as the band<br />
did live. Buy one immediately, if not sooner.<br />
As is often the case with musical events at this particular venue,<br />
this one was presented through the auspices of JAZZ.FM91 and bore<br />
its imprimatur. Ross Porter and Jaymz Bee each made (mercifully)<br />
brief speeches, and Fay Olson was her usual tireless self in organizing<br />
and promoting the whole affair. But the real founder of this musical<br />
feast, and of the CD it celebrated, was an individual who I won’t name<br />
because he’d likely prefer to remain anonymous, so I’ll call him “DT,”<br />
short for “Deep Throat”. A passionate jazz fan since the mid-1930s (!),<br />
DT has been a major benefactor of jazz in this city since the late 60s,<br />
when the Boss Brass and CJRT-FM got under way. He has drummed<br />
up interest in jazz with his considerable oratorical skills but time<br />
and time again has put his money where his mouth is, so to speak,<br />
by donating to countless recordings, tours, festivals, bands, concerts,<br />
broadcasts and other jazz projects.<br />
In the case of MacLeod’s new CD, DT not only footed the considerable<br />
bill for its overall production, but also contributed to the promotion<br />
of the event as well by inviting at least two large tables’ worth of<br />
people – friends, musicians and/or both – to attend as his guests and<br />
picking up the tab for everything – admission, dinner, drinks. I would<br />
have attended anyway, but Mrs. W and I were among these guests and<br />
32 | <strong>March</strong> <strong>2018</strong> thewholenote.com
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